Cool.

We did have a thunderstorm minutes after I signed off yesterday and that seems to have been the last one for the time being. Yesterday's heavy rains have calmed to showers and cooler weather. I've managed to snatch some reading time outside but never for very long. Somehow I'm not so keen on reading indoors, maybe it's because I can't put my feet up or sit up in bed. Instead Linas and I are spending our time working on puzzles. With the PC off I was forced to abandon my on-line jigsaws and instead work with with Linas. He was lucky enough to get a Puzz 3-D of the Taj Mahal at the dump for £1. It is big enough to be challenging especially as we try not to look at the instructions. When it is all done he'll photograph it and sell it on eBay.

We had to make another trip in town today as Linas had an appointment at the Job Centre. No jobs as yet, of course. He saw a bank job that he was interested in but the description stated that you couldn't apply if you have qualifications ABOVE a certain level. He thought about it on the way home and decided this was ridiculous so when we got home he rang the bank direct and they said apply anyway which he will do.

We stopped at the supermarket and I stocked up on fruit and some fat-free yoghurt to eat with jam. Somehow a few sweets also found their way into my trolley, I don't like most sweets but Liquorice Allsorts are OK as are marshmallows but jelly babies proved too sweet. We caused chaos as we had 4 shop assistants searching for 'flying saucers' which we were all sure were normally there but none of us could find them. Driving into town and shopping left me feeling exhausted so apart from some ironing I haven't done much else this afternoon.

Drip, Drip.

Another day of rain, rain and yet more rain. The dreaded inertia set in as soon as my eyes registered the grey sky and lashing rain. Logically I know that not being able to go outside does not affect my ability to work inside the house but there is this trip switch in my brain which doesn't turn on without the sun. Fortunately backache drove me from my bed - see there are some advantages to my bad back, and once I had given myself a stern lecture I decided to blitz the sitting room. Armed with my high tech equipment, a bucket of soapy water and cloth and the hoover, I set to work and now the room is sparkling. A bit of a once over for the rest of the downstairs and my need to 'have done something' has been assuaged. Peter was set to go rowing this afternoon but the high wind made the river conditions too rough to get the gigs out and rowing was cancelled for today.

For supper tonight we are having a cheese stuffed crust pizza with a salad. Take-away pizzas are tasty but expensive and full of salt and additives so we never have them. Shop bought pizzas are still pretty expensive and with 3 hungry boys at home I always made my own but now there are just the 2 of us I sometimes buy them if reduced. Cheese stuffed crust is my very favourite so when I saw some half-price in the Co-Op I couldn't resist. An added bonus was that they were on a 3 for 2 offer which was still in effect even though they were reduced so I bought all 3 and the other 2 are now in the freezer.

A Satisfying Day.

I was at home this morning and as the forecast was for rain later I was straight out into the garden once I had my morning coffee. The plan was to weed a small flower bed and tidy up the path next to it. This job then expanded into weeding the flower bed, tidying up the path by pulling up the ornamental raspberry, (rubus spectabilis) that was growing into it and then heaving out a fair section of the rubus thicket which in the 16 years since it was planted has spread a little too far. Also removed were some brambles, small trees and a big fat root of bind weed (very satisfying to have unearthed that). There is still more of the rubus to take out but I shall ask Linas to help me with that. After a couple of hours I stopped to have my breakfast then sat in the sun working on some ideas for a staff meeting about sketching as art is my forte and I more or less volunteered to run it as a practical session. I was teaching in the afternoon, more art, and then I went into town to visit the post office, library etc. Of course I just had to check out the sales in the clothes shops. I went into a fairly cheap shop and found a top which I thought would do for school. I didn't think it was in sale but when I went to pay I was told that it was in sale so there was 30% off and also sale items were buy one get one free. It took me a while but eventually I found another top that I liked. By the time I had been to the library I found myself walking past the pasty shop at 5.00 when all the pasties were reduced to £1 each. So I bought 2 large steak pasties for our supper. My shopping still wasn't finished as I had to get some things in Tescos where I happened to pick up a few more reduced bargains; taramasalata, potato, pea & pesto salad(25p!) and some fresh cream choux buns half price.

It stayed dry all afternoon but looming over the far side of town were some very ominous looking black clouds. Coming home it looked as if it was raining over Exmoor and the news was full of yet more flooding in Wales. So far it is still dry but I am expecting heavy rain at any moment. At least I got to sit out in the garden and eat my pasty and read one of my library books. June is the month for roses and both the climbers over the front of the house are flowering well.
The old English roses seem to have come through the winter quite well this year. This one smells of strawberries.

The vibrant colour of this modern hybrid makes up for its lack of scent and the blooms are very resilient even in the strongest winds.

I am teaching for the next 3 day s so I don't mind too much what kind of weather we have.

Wall Washing.

While the tv has been full of snowy scenes from 'up country', (Yorkshire and places north to be precise), we've had a day of rain with some sleet in the morning. The few times I ventured out the wind was very icy. So I had no choice but to get on with washing walls in our bedroom and bathroom. Washing mildew off textured walls, in our bathroom, was hard work indeed. I don't want to start painting until we have some warm weather but there are still a few preparation jobs to do first. I love the fact that at the bend of our stairs there is a big window overlooking the bird feeders, the stream and Ron's field beyond. Today I had to stop and watch a group of sheep playing in the goyle (North Devon dialect word for a valley or dip). They must have been youngsters because they were in a playful mood. They would huddle together with some of them twitching and bouncing, then all of a sudden they would dash off about 10 yds, wait, turn and then come running back, sometimes stopping in the goyle and running around that. The lambs, when we have them, often play king-of-the-castle on these rocks but I haven't noticed sheep being so energetic before. At first I thought there might be a dog up there causing all the commotion but no, it was just the sheep being very lively.

As a reward for today's hard work I gave in to temptation and bought this collapsible camping kettle which had caught my eye. It was a bit pricey but I love the design concept and I hadn't wanted to buy a small whistling kettle because I do like to be able to clean the inside or at least see what might have fallen in. I am anticipating that we may go on a few more camping trips, that's my justification for buying it. I don't go in for many gadgets but I am very fond of touch lamps. We have 2 as bedside lights. It's so much easier when you are half asleep, to reach out and touch the lamp rather than fumble for a switch and having different light levels is also useful. When we do move I'm tempted to have touch switches for the room lights as well.

Changing Weather.

Woke up this morning to a grey sky and the radio talking about temperatures in Scotland dropping to 20C lower than last week and snow already falling on some Scottish mountains. When I had heard someone mention snow last week I thought it was an early April Fool but we are now being predicted sleet and snow for Tuesday night and all day Wednesday - HERE! At first I could see the sun shining weakly through the greyness but even as I went to get my camera the mist rolled in and blotted out the sun completetly. Going out to feed the chickens I couldn't even see the lake on the other side of the hedge. This prompted me to go up the hill to see the extent of the mist. Fisrt I stopped to say hello to the friendly youngsters who are in one field together. One of them, Ben I think, had a strap dangling from his fly sheet so I had to clip that back on. Luckily I could do it through the fence and didn't have to scramble through the fence and onto the very wet grass.
Once I got up the hill I could see that the mist was confined to the valley.

And when, no more than 10 mins later, I walked back down the hill, the mist had retreated to the very bottom of the valley.

The weather forecast was full of dire warnings about the rest of the week so I would have liked to spend the whole day out in the garden but I had some urgent jobs (posting some Easter parcels to the boys), to do in town.

As I drove towards town I could see the familiar grey smudging which indicated mist in town as well. When I got there you couldn't see any mist but I could certainly feel the chill in the air. In town I also went to the library where I stocked up on books for the holiday. A bit of a random selection, women authors only and not from the bottom 2 shelves because bending down and up can be tricky for my back. I also paid for the first library book I have ever lost. I can't find it anywhere at home and I wonder if the automatic machine didn't pick it up when I put a whole pile of books in the slot. My fault for not checking, I have had that happen since but I then I did notice. If the book turns up at home or in the library then I can get my money back minus £1. I finally found a pair of lightweight loose black trousers for work in one of the cheaper shops which was a relief. Finally I did some food shopping and hopefully I won't need to hit the shops again this holiday.

Back home I worked out in the garden, mainly digging up weeds. I must say that I don't remember the garden being so tidy this early in the year which gives me a feeling of satisfaction. Not that the garden is pristine, I'm not that type of person but I find it hard to relax when there are too many overgrown corners. I ended the afternoon sitting up by the scree garden. I had intended to read but instead just sat and enjoyed the relative tranquility of the valley. I say relative because the birds are very loud at the moment. In the background I could hear sheep (no lambs yet), the occasional cow and a rooster crowing on a farm up the valley. I watched the clouds making interesting shapes as they were blown across the sky. It is unfortunate that with global warming the UK will get colder as we get more of these winds blowing down from Siberia.

Shopping.

I had to go to the post office again this morning so I gave myself enough time to have a wander along the High Street. I'm not sure what these ladies were doing with their balloons in The Square in front of our local museum but it was probably something to do with International Women's Day.

Judging from reports about the grim state of other town High Streets we seem to be quite lucky with ours probably because we do not have any out of town shopping malls. Instead the High Street is pedestrianised during the day and there is good range of shops. The shops themselves are nothing much architecturally but if you look up there are a lot of interesting Georgian and older buildings. Those combined with the quaint cobbled alleyways from medieval times give the town its character.

I had a wander around the shops and thought I might finally treat myself to a hoody from Next. I had looked at it before Christmas and decided that I really didn't need to buy more clothes. Then weeks later I relented and went to buy it but it was no longer on the shop rails. I chased up a member of staff who found several of the cream ones put away in the storeroom, but not the black. So then I asked if they could order one in but as it was old stock it wasn't in the current catalogue and they couldn't find the product number. And that was the end of that. But then last week I found both the cream and the black ones back down on the shop floor. Again I thought that perhaps I shouldn't buy it and walked away only to later regret my decision. So today I went in determined to buy one and guess what? No fluffy hoodies on the shop floor. This time when they did find the right size in the store room I treated myself to this rather indulgent purchase. After all a fluffy, black hoody ticks all the boxes for me.

I taught in the afternoon and was home early enough to fit in an hour's gardening before the sun hid behind the trees.

Traffic Hold Up.

Yesterday it was ducks, today geese. I was driving home through Burridge, a collection of 10 houses along one side of the road about a mile out of town, when my way was blocked by 2 fat farmyard geese, one white and one brown, waddling along the road. I didn't want to scare them onto the other side of the road which has a few bends in it at that point. Most people drive much faster than the 30mph limit there so we might have had squashed goose or someone swerving into me in panic. Instead I wound down my window and calling encouraging come along goose noises I slowly herded them up to a point where there was an opening in the hedge and they could get back into the field.

It is getting warmer but it is still very grey everywhere. I had an early appointment with the physiotherapist who suggested that I had done far too much gardening for the current state of my neck. 'Half an hour to an hour with a good break', was his gentle admonition, not several hours at a time! After a tough massage to loosen up my neck bones I went into town. I had several parcels to post but instead of going to the main Post Office in town which is always crowded, slow and smelly I drove out to the other side of town to one of the few local Post Offices left. There I had free parking, when I walked in I was the only customer and had a pleasant conversation with both of the counter staff while one of them weighed and stamped my parcels. After that it was back into town to meet up with 2 friends for coffee and cheesecake at our favourite place. They have started a card scheme there where they stamp a little card each time you buy a coffee or a cheesecake and when you have had 6 of either you then get a 7th free. While I was in town I had to hand in my camera once again because a speck of fluff has appeared inside the lens. The manager said if it was his he would unscrew the lens and clean it out but as I have it under warranty it has to be sent away and won't be back for a few weeks. Until then I shall have to use my baby Nikon for my daily snaps. The first Rosemary flowers, 6 days ago.

Back home there was a second egg. Considering how much corn those hens have eaten over the winter they work out to be very expensive eggs.

Back Again.

Yesterday's lack of post was down to my PC suddenly acting weirdly on Monday night. It went on a total go slow refusing to do anything I asked so in the end fearing a Trojan or similar nasty I had to pull the plug out of the wall because it wouldn't close down. Peter gave it a thorough check last night (so useful being married to an IT systems analyst), and he thinks it is just one of the parts of my PC playing up as there was no virus and no untoward processes running. Phew!

At times I felt at a bit of a loss being disconnected from the web but I did spend a lot of time in town yesterday. First I had an appointment with the physiotherapist, his really deep massage of my upper spine felt so good and then I went in to do some shopping. I managed to get 3 hours free parking by first parking in a local road where you can stay for an hour, that gave me time to get to the library and visit the shops at one end of the High st. Then I drove to the other side of town as I needed to go to BJ's where I parked in the Lidl's car park. (2 free hours.) A quick walk over the bridge, dropped 2 frame rucksacks into a charity shop and then some browsing in the shops. I bought 2 more vest t-shirts, a black one in sale and a blue one in a charity shop. (Peter doesn't understand there there are subtle but important differences between all the black vests I own.) I bought lots of other little things that we/I needed including a globe bird feeder to put seeds in. The first feeder I tried let too many seeds fall out when the birds were feeding and was empty in a couple of days. I also bought a camping cooker and some gas canisters for the grand camping trip. I did get some gardening done in the afternoon as well so I didn't miss my PC too much.

Today the weather has been a bit more dramatic. Warm but very windy with the occasional spot of sunshine. I spent the whole day working in the garden and now the heather banks are thoroughly weeded. When I came back from having lunch the frogs were all out croaking away in the pond but my presence sent them under the lily pads. So with me interrupting their froggy antics and both Elwen and Patch slurping up the frogspawn, the frogs were not having a good day.
I have also been messing about with a few thrifty projects. I've had this knitted mohair mix neck warmer/snood for a while. I didn't knit it myself and I'm not sure where it came from, possibly a jumble sale where I was helping out.

Recently I have been wearing it as a soft indoor hat which looked daft but was cosy. So I made a couple of pom-poms and threaded them through one end so that I can pull them tight or open them up to still wear it as a neck warmer, and crocheted a border at the other end.

And now I look like a hippy eco-warrior but I don't care because it is just what I need in these slightly colder days.

Yesterday my shopping consisted of a lot of checking out anything that was still in sale. Sales seem to be a permanent feature these days. I bought this necklace, was £10 reduced to £1. Not my style but I loved the beads.

It was a very easy job to remake them into a pair of long dangly earrings and there are still beads to spare.

It's good when a project turns out right, sometimes they don't or get left to one side. I'm not into following current fashion, but I have my own style and I love to make one thing out of another.

All Grey.

It has felt like a very grey world today with almost total cloud cover but fortunately not too much rain. It was also surprisingly warm. I took these photos at 11.30 on my way into town.

I was teaching in the afternoon but went in early so that I could go to the Post Office. Normally my friendly postman takes any stamped mail but I wanted to send some documents to the Student Loan Company. This current loan was applied for last March for the academic year starting last September but the loan company is a shambles asking for different documents each time and then claiming that half the stuff we sent hadn't arrived. So now I am not taking any chances and will send everything as recorded mail. Luckily they did give Romas the basic loan but he is still due quite a bit more. They assure me that he should get it in 6-7 working days once they receive this final document but you never know.

While I was in town I bought a replacement iron at a charity shop for £4. The Rotary Club is the only charity shop that sells electrical equipment, all safety tested. I still wish I could buy a light weight non-steam iron as not having a tumble dryer I never need to use the steam. I ironed a sheet tonight and it worked fine but I did have to put Speedy outside as he was leaping on the sheet from one side with Patch attacking from the other and then Speedy tried to jump up and swat the actual iron.

Teaching was fun but tiring as I was on my own with 28 children. Tonight I have had to do some planning and preparing resources as I will be teaching all day tomorrow. Better have an early night.

Meteors!

My ears pricked up this morning when from the radio I heard the news that we were in the middle of a meteor shower (the Quadrantids) which was due to peak in about 10 mins. I leapt out of bed and after pressing my nose against the window to check the cloud cover I threw on lots of clothes. Within minutes I was standing outside clutching a cup of coffee and peering up at the night sky. Conditions weren't good and there was over 50% cloud cover but I did get to see one meteor. All the same I enjoyed being outside in the dark with the wind roaring through the trees and a tawny owl hooting over by the lake.

I had to be up anyway as I was going in to work for the morning. We had an inset day with 2 morning training sessions. The first was on assessing and teaching maths which is an enormous subject not helped by the number of different assessment schemes being used often side by side. The other session was on communicating with children who have language and communication difficulties. As this applies to 1:5 children in the country it is not surprising that there are a number of children in each class with these difficulties which often result in behaviour problems. It felt really good to be using my brain again and feeling full of enthusiasm I was regretful that I do not have my own class anymore. Then I brought myself back to reality thinking about all the areas of the curriculum that have to be delivered at the same depth while also coping with behaviour issues, the day to day running of the class, stimulating displays, marking and feedback and all those little emergencies that happen every day. That's why teachers get burnt out.

My working day finished at lunchtime when I went to collect my car from the garage. In the morning I had asked them to check a squeaky fan belt and put on my new wing mirror. Alec also fixed a rattle which was coming from underneath and was part of the exhaust falling off - again. The total cost was £36 but he is trustworthy unlike many garages which see women as easy prey. When I drove away it was raining heavily so I tried to turn on the windscreen wipers but they didn't work. I went straight back but it turned out that the wiper had slipped down and got caught in the bonnet when they closed it after fixing the fan belt.I stopped in a side street where you get an hour's free parking so that I could have a walk round the High Street to check out the sales. I bought some earrings which I may remake longer and danglier. These charm bead bracelets seem to have been popular for a few years now and I bought some on sale before Christmas to give as presents. Today I bought another one so that I now have 2. Finally I bought a small cheap diary to keep a record of my photos. I up/down? load a file nearly every day and while the pictures are doing their thing I make a quick note in the diary. I am not so organised at backing up my photos onto my external hard drive which I plan to do at the end of each week but usually forget and then I have lots of files to copy.
The stormy weather has returned so back home I finished off lining my little Saltrock bag and did a few bits of housework.

More Arrivals.

We went into reasonably early this morning laden with another load for the dump, all stuff cleared out of Peter's study. The incentive of having to clear it for Vytas and Sally to sleep in has resulted a good bit of cleaning up.You get 2 hours free parking if you park at Lidl's and walk acros the bridge which is what I generally do unless it is pouring with rain. Not all the shops were open but there were plenty of people wandering about the High Street looking for bargains. I stocked up on half price cards for next year and a few small things. I picked up that red mug again but still put it back because we have so many mugs at home. Linas and Romas came into town with me and went off to look at computer parts etc. Linas got a good deal on a new power supply. We called in at the Co-op on our way home and got quite a few bargains. In the car park someone had left 2 part used extra big rolls of wrapping paper. They were clean and dry so I took them home for next year.

Vytas and Sally arrived in the afternoon bringing more yummy presents having driven down from Sally's parents in Leicestershire. Linas has taken over cooking the supper so that will be something spicy and I can relax. Suits me.

Up, Up and Away.

A friend sent me this in an email.

Dear Santa,

I don't want much for Christmas, I just want the person reading this to be happy. Friends are the fruitcake of life.- some nutty, some soaked in alcohol, some sweet but mix them together and they're my friends.

Love Ya.

Today I am thankful for my friends. I only have a small group of friends, outside of work, and some of them I don't see that often but I treasure each and every one of them.

I spent most of the day in town today, meeting my friend for coffee and cheesecake then gently ambling around the shops and looking for bargains. Lots of things are already on sale but my Christmas presents are all sorted. Most of the things that caught my eye were things I would like for myself but don't really need- like a half price shiny, red metallic mug, but I shall wait until after Christmas before any such indulgences. I did buy some jewellery, one for me and some for presents, because it was reduced by 92%. Bought also for our traditional Christmas eve meal was some spicy marinated herrings which can only be bought from one fishmonger in town. I also bought fruit and veg from a stall in the Pannier Market including a red cabbage and local cooking apples. I have already cooked up a large pan of spiced red cabbage (with onions, apples and bacon). It freezes well and we shall have some with our Christmas rib of beef (no turkey - hooray!) and the rest will be eaten when our visitors arrive.

Out in the pedestrianised High Street, as well as someone playing the violin very well, was this chap promoting his balloon flights. I took a leaflet and shall leave it in a prominent position as this is something I would love to do. But at around £100 for a couple of hours it is quite pricey.

Tonight, once the cats were out, I gave the window shelves in the kitchen a coat of white gloss paint. I'll see what they look tomorrow to see if they need a second coat.

Big Nikon Returns.

It was a very grey day today but not quite so cold and only a few drops of rain on the way home.12.00 today from the Old Bridge.

I had a session with the physiotherapist in the morning and then I carried on into town to do a little Christmas shopping. Now that our youngsters are all grown up you would think that the number of presents would lessen but somehow this isn't the case. I still like my idea, when they were small, of each child only getting 1 present (apart from tiny items in a stocking). This might sound a bit harsh but I included money given by family members to buy a really special 'Father Christmas Present' for each of the boys. This worked well for quite a few years.

It is all different nowadays and I enjoy using the Internet to hunt out special items and check the prices. I was looking at something today(Shh, it's a secret), and my first stop was Ebay to look at new prices there. Then I did a second check and found exactly the same item in a sale at Argos at 20% less. I was able to reserve the item on-line and then pick it up and then collect it from the branch in the High Street. That's the 3rd of my big presents sorted. I'm sure the boys still like having plenty of chocolates so as things are on special offer I buy them in.

I spent the afternoon teaching and then once more I got stuck behind farm vehicles on the way home. Not only was there this trailer load of straw but in front of it was another contractors' wagon full of feed. So it was 20mph all the way to the top of our drive giving me time to take a photo through the windscreen.

When I was in town I had called by the camera shop to enquire if my big Nikon had returned from the menders and lo and behold it was there. Although very friendly in that shop they don't seem to be too good at contacting me by email. This time it had actually been back to Nikon rather than some random repairers. It's lovely to have such sharp pictures once more.

PS Is it really OK not to worry about the asteroid that is passing so close by tonight?

Some Good, Some Bad.

We had some lovely sunshine this morning which gave me the chance to go outside and clear all the gutters at the back of the house as they had filled up with leaves again. Then I swept up more leaves at the scree garden. At the moment I am doing this on my hands and knees with a brush and pan, that way I can weed between the slabs at the same time, but now that the main bulk has been cleared I'll try using the leaf vacuum again. Maybe it will be good at getting the leaves off the stones. Then it was off to the hospital for more massaging from my lovely physiotherapist. He's pleased with my progress, ie no more dead finger but I have a lot of work to do to correct years of poor posture and get my back muscles loosened up.


Then it was time to head into town for coffee and a catch up with a friend. Today I had mango & passion fruit cheesecake with my cappuccino.

On the way in to town I noticed that the clouds were gathering filling the sky with lovely colours,

and interesting shapes. (That's Dartmoor on the horizon.) Then I realised they also were an indication of a lot of rain to come. And rain it did, luckily I had thrown a jacket into the car just in case my fluffy fleece wasn't enough. When we came out of Lindsay's cake shop it was pouring.

While I was in town I called in at the camera shop and was pleased to find my big Nikon ready to be collected after being repaired. I was not so pleased to find, after spending ages stitching back on my extra long strap which once again had been cut off, that it has come back even worse. The spot on the lens has gone but there are serious issues with the eye piece viewfinder. There is a scratch right in the middle of it and the picture does not sharpen up when you press the button. Even if my poor sight didn't force me to rely on the small viewfinder rather than the big screen I would still be livid that my expensive camera has been returned to me in such a state. Guess I'll be heading back to the shop soon. Luckily the staff in there are very helpful unlike in many shops so I won't have to psych myself up for a big confrontation.

To top off my day it looks as if my washing machine has gone kaput. I've tried twice to do the same lot of washing but all it does it get stuck halfway in the cycle and keep making wooshing noises for several hours. I've switched off the power and I'll investigate further tomorrow.

Best news of all, Linas phoned to say that he has got an IT job covering for maternity leave so he could be there for anything from 6 weeks to 6 months. He has a 2 week probationary period first but I am sure he will do well. At least it is a start.

Aargh.

After Peter got the Internet back last night I spent ages writing up this post and I thought it had published but at that very point the Internet fell over again and now I find that it was all lost. Aargh.

Originally the post was titled Bargains And Not-bargains.

My not-bargain was a tin of special offer gloss paint from B&Q which was runny and did not produce a gloss finish. However it is fine for an undercoat and I was able to spruce up an old chair.

The bargains, on the other hand were numerous last night. After work I went back to B&Q to buy some more expensive gloss paint and filler for the windows and picked up some reduced neglected heather plants which will fill a few gaps. Then I dropped into the Co-Op on the way home. There I found some reduced items. A few moments later I noticed a member of staff going over to reduce goods even further to 75% off. Back on the shelf went my 50% off items and I stocked up on chicken quarters, bacon, sausages, free-range eggs, pork chops, pizzas and cherry cake for the freezer as well as pastrami, ham, cooked chicken and pate for Peter's lunches and a few other goodies. 3 bags of shopping and only the cottage cheese at full price.
I do dislike the way the shops start putting out their Christmas goods so early. It's still 3 weeks to Bonfire Night.
The cloud level was really low in the morning. Down in our valley I couldn't even see the vehicles parked at the stables next door, only their headlights. Yet though I spent an hour working in the scree garden my fleece was hardly damp. I must have been just below the cloud level. When I drove off to work at lunchtime it was wet enough to need the windscreen wipers on. I made the mistake of not wearing a jacket to work so got very wet when it rained heavily after work.

The cats know how to keep themselves warm.

Technology Failure.

The weather has been quite pleasant today despite the gloomy forecast. I spent the morning in town having a coffee with a friend and doing a little shopping. I wonder if Primark have some special knowledge about the forthcoming winter as they are stocking not only warm flannel pjs but even warmer fleece ones. I couldn't resist a pair of extra fluffy fleece pjs (pink & black) as there is nothing nicer than slopping about in pjs and dressing gown (the fluffier the better) on chilly evenings. They also have fleece all in ones for men and women. Novelty items I would have thought especially the tiger suits.
My only other purchase was an extra large mug for Peter from a charity shop. I was a bit taken aback by the price sticker saying £4.50 and when I queried it they said it was must have been a mistake and sold it to me for £1.

TV has been on my mind today or rather televisions. We like to spend a lot of time at home and do enjoy relaxing and watching TV. I watch more than Peter but there are some programmes we try not to miss such as Casualty/Holby City and Strictly or Dancing on Ice. The new BBC dinosaur programme was also excellent. We do also read and listen to the radio and of course there is the Internet (too slow for downloading TV). Radio reception is poor here and once the radio is on R4 it is wise not to change it. This is with the analogue signal which is due to be switched off in a few years. When that happens we will have no radio as my fancy digital radio cannot get a signal here even though it can get one in Barnstaple. I did try writing to the powers that be asking what I was supposed to do but never got an answer. We run 2 tv systems but we are forever having trouble with the Sky satellite. This week the picture started freezing again, we lost the signal last night, got it back by tweaking things but today we only got a picture for a few minutes. I spent a long time on the phone first to Sky and then to the company that we insure the box with and they are coming to fix it on ........ Thursday. So irritating especially when the new flat screen tv is coming tomorrow and my eBay purchase of a small CRT TV for the bedroom arrived today. (£18 and that was mostly postage.) So all tv watching will have to be done in the kitchen and there is less choice on Freeview, bah.

Strange Weather.

Peter and I went into town today to look at TVs. The TV in our bedroom is on its way out but we haven't yet been able to decide on one to fit in the same space. The problem is that I still watch a lot of TV sitting on the floor and with the new flat screens the picture darkens if you are looking from below. We're also thinking about changing the sitting room TV. The current one is big (by UK standards) and the picture is very good but because it is a CRT the whole thing is enormous. A neat flat screen would be really nice so we decided to compare the different sorts. I'm quite fussy about the sharpness of the picture and for the same price the plasma was better than the LED and the LCD screens. 3-D is too much of a gimmick for us to be bothered with it for the moment. We did find one we liked but as they weren't prepared to move on the price even if we bought a small TV as well we decided to wait for a while. We might even find a better deal on the Internet. While I went to the library Peter went to the phone shop (he needs new software to be able to get a signal from here), and we met up in The Reform, Peter's local pub so I thought I'd show what a typical British freehold (independent) pub looks like.
Although being at the bottom of Pilton High Street it is not our nearest pub Peter goes there to meet friends, play pool and most importantly drink the real ale that is brewed in the micro brewery at the back of the pub. Peter always has a barrel of Barum Original at home which is much nicer than anything that comes in tins.

There were a few people in the pub even in the afternoon but it gets crowded in the evenings especially when there is live music.
It had been unusually warm during the day though ominous grey clouds loomed. There are weather warnings for storms tomorrow night so when we got home I cleared the leaves out of the gutter at the back of the house and also put wood across the drive to divert water onto our neighbour's field.